It's November 2022 is not over yet. So ready to move. It doesn't mean we can't take a break. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy our holidays like what all is available are starting, ignite your visibility on Instagram coming up on the 28th of November and that is going to help you streamline your Instagram experience. Understand it fully know what type of content to be putting on there and understand all the ins and
outs real stories. He posts all the things so that you can create a raving fan audience there. Make sure you check it out visibility queen.com Welcome to today's episode of the visibility Queen show. I am so excited to have one of my dear friends, somebody who is a part of my team and has been in my life since 2019. Her name is Ariel Dotson, and she is the co founder of core legacy. Ariel welcome. We're so glad to see you. Thank you. I am so glad to be here. So tell us a little bit
about you. And and then we'll get into the core legacy story too. So tell us a little bit about you. Yeah, so my name is Ariel. I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I actually started renovating my childhood home and southern Columbus, right before the beginning of COVID. So that's been one of our my biggest projects, and hopefully it's something that I can say will be like my greatest accomplishment. Um, let's see, um, my mother lives with me. And we have a cat. And we never give gave him
a name. Because when I moved in two years ago, I asked my mom what his name was. She's like, Oh, I never gave him one. He just followed me home one day. So what do you call him? Um, Kitty. But I think we decided to call him killer because he likes. He's like an indoor outdoor cat. So he likes to bring dogs bring birds to the doorstep. That's funny. That's
so funny. Okay, so one of the reasons I wanted to bring Ariel on today is because one of the reasons becoming a business owner, I wanted to be able to have enough revenue and money in my bank account that I could always give without looking at my bank account, because I feel like so many times. In my past, I was always like, you know, let me check my statement, like how much money do I have left over this month. And this is what I can give versus I can give, you know, larger amounts these days.
But one of the things I think is so important is being able to give back as a business owner as an entrepreneur, giving back to nonprofits as we can. So I wanted Ariel to come on, tell us her story, and more about core legacy. And maybe that your heart is led to support this amazing organization. But Ariel, tell us your story and how this all formed core legacy. Yes, so I'm growing up in Columbus, Ohio, my family grew up in
poverty. My mother suffered and continues to suffer from schizophrenia, which was misdiagnosed when I was younger. So the doctor said that she struggled with bipolar disorder and depression. And not until recently, in 2016. So about seven years ago, we discovered that it was actually schizophrenia, which is a little bit more intense. Because it keeps her from holding down employment or relationships with friends and
family. I'm so saying my mother battle that when I was growing up, and then also my, my father had a drug had a drug addiction. So I saw him in and out of jail and and out of rehab. He would go on binges. And it was just he was a great dad. So it was devastating to see how hard he fought to fight it. And he'd eventually lost his life to it when I was 17. When I graduated high school, I went to Ohio State. And I felt isolated. Even though I had a
lot of friends. I never felt like I could share with them my story because out of shame and embarrassment from where I came from. Um, so I was in and out of college, although I enlisted when I was 19. The military was there to help pay for my education. And I also utilize the Pell Grant, which is a grant Ohio provides to low income individuals to get their college degree. So although I had financial assistance when it came to getting my degree. That feeling isolated and alone.
And not really sharing my story or talking about it is what really took me so long to get my degree to be 10 years. So I eventually got it and 2019. So I gotta say. So once I got my degree, I wanted to do something for young adults, ages 18 to 24. To provide them a community and support that I did not have, when I had turned 18 and became an adult. That's when me and a group of friends founded core legacy. So correlate core legacy.
Our mission is to educate and empower young men and women who have experienced childhood trauma. And initially, we were just doing annual retreats, where people would get away to rest, relax, connect with others, and learn about childhood trauma and the effects of it once you become an adult. And we would host monthly personal professional development workshops and
community dinners. But after our first retreat, one person, one of one of the guests who came he, he, there's this questionnaire, it's called the ACES questionnaire, Aces stands for adverse childhood experiences, and this 10 questions that vary from whether or not your parents were separated or divorced before the age of 18, which is very common
for a lot of people, right? And another question is, if one of your parents had suffered from a mental illness, or if one of your parents struggled with an addiction, and that also asked questions around abuse, physical, mental or sexual abuse, um, if you had ever experienced that, or if you had ever witnessed your mother experience that. So there's this list of 10 questions. And we presented it at this retreat to
really educate around it. And this young man said, What happens if I answered yes to all 10 of these questions? And the objective behind the questionnaire? So if you answer yes to four more questions, you're so many more times likely to develop heart disease, obesity and mental illness, you're more likely to take your own life. So that's the question. That's the objective, the questionnaire and he had answered yes to all 10
questions. So this young man had dropped out of high school in the ninth grade because his family couldn't afford to keep the water on or the electric on. So you would go to school and get bought bullied because he didn't have the resources he needed, or he wasn't able to keep up with his hygiene, or wash his clothes. So he dropped out of high school in ninth grade, and he was 24 when he came to the retreat. So he expressed that he wanted to get
his GED. So we partnered with a tutoring program at Ohio State. For three months, we, this young man met with a tutoring program every week to learn how to take the GED. And it was great at first is very motivated. Every time he went home, he would go home, he was living with his mother, his grandmother, his sister, and her husband and their three kids, and this two bedroom house.
So he was going home into this chaotic environment, which is not conducive to learning or, you know, focusing on yourself and your self care and he struggled with we believe was undiagnosed depression and anxiety. He couldn't even drink caffeine because it would give them anxiety attacks. Um, so he ended up not continuing with the GED tutoring. And because of the age group, ages 18 to 24 that we served, and they all have different
schedules, right. And we were all that age, you know, with these entry level jobs were not they weren't all working normal, nine to five, with weekends off right. Most of them were honestly working weekends. So it was really hard to even get them to these personal professional development workshops because not only did they have different schedules, they were living in survival
mode. So this self actualization and the Maslow's hierarchy hierarchy of needs and focusing on just personal and professional development, they couldn't do it because they were so in survival mode focus on paying their bills, taking care of their family family, like I am with my mom who has schizophrenia. So whenever she has an episode, it really sets me back. But like, I am not, I am not the exception.
There's so many people in this demographic who are caretakers of family members, yeah, who are living in poverty. So focusing on the personal professional development is not their priority. So that's when we discovered we wanted to build this educational housing pilot program that we are launching next year. This is exciting, in a roundabout way, the whole story.
Well, tell us more about the house because I know a little bit about it, because we've obviously been on retreats and stuff together talking about it. So can you tell my audience a little bit more about what your hope is, and your dreams are for this? This housing? Yes. So this education housing program will be a two year program where this it's a pilot program. So our first round will be for five people. And they'll come in, and they'll have their own space,
and privacy. Because this age range, would they want to know what it's like to be independent, right for the first time becoming an adult. So they're going to have their own space and privacy will be able to bring people in experts and to talk about things such as resume writing, interview skills, different professional development, they'll have access to a mental health professional, so that they can get the help
that they need. We're going to set up a mentorship program with people in the communities that people can come in, and take them out and mentor them one on one. So that they're immersed in this positive and positive environment, right? I'm surrounded by people who want them to succeed. So it'll be a two year program. We're working to partner with homeless centers and Columbus to work with homeless youth. And we're, yeah, we're just super excited to get the ball rolling, get the ball rolling,
launch the program. Right now we're in the fundraising pages to get the funding we need to launch it. Do you have $1 amount like that, you know, that we're, we're reaching for $100. that'll cover a full time staff member, maybe a part time staff member to help support that role. And the rent for the house. And the food for these individuals living there and the additional support that they need. Okay, awesome. And if somebody wants to donate, how can they? How can they donate?
Or even start like monthly giving, which is like super like, you can set the amount that you want? How can they find out more information about that? Yes. So whenever somebody asked how they can donate, I always send them to our Facebook page, they can just click the donate button, and Facebook will take them to the steps. And then we have a monthly giving program that I can give you the link to when we get off the get off the interview. So our founding monthly donor program is very
important to us. So what we're pushing right now, our goal is to get 100 people in it. We have as of yesterday, I want to say we have 30 people in it. So we're 30% there. Yes. And what's so important about this funding monthly donor program is as a grassroots organization, we spend so much time fundraising and asking people to donate, and the more time we spend towards that the last time we can focus on actually making the mission happen because we're a working board. None of us are getting
paid. Um, I finally was able to get a stipend monthly stipend APR, which is still very small, but it just shows you that we don't have anybody working on this business full time right now. So our time is very limited. So the more time we spend towards fundraising, the less time we can spend towards implementing. So this is why a monthly giving program is so important because once somebody signs up monthly giving programs have on average, an 80%
retention rate. So once we get somebody to sign up, we don't have to ask them to give again. And the benefit of being in the monthly giving program, they get this cool t shirt I know people on your podcast may not see. Yeah. You get this cool t shirt with it. So it's, we have, we have it in yellow and black. And we don't require a minimum monthly donation because we want everybody to feel like their donation counts no matter how big or how small because it
really does count. We have 30 people in the program, the monthly giving program right now, the lowest donation amount right now is $5 a month, but the highest that 125 a month. And that's putting us on average with 30 people in the program $800 coming in every single month at the moment. And that's a lot. So what would the average donation being about $25 a month? So then the dollars add up? Yes,
they certainly do. And that's what I tried to tell people to like, whatever I'm doing a fundraiser or like I'm doing in July, like $5 may be uncomfortable for some people, right. And they've stretched them, but they want to give and $5 adds to the money, right? It adds to what you're fundraising and every dollar counts. I mean, it really, really does. And I know it's like so cliche to say that, but it really is it really
is helpful. It is and it shows as a grassroots organization, it's really hard to get funding from investors, and the government, because we haven't really established that credibility yet. But once we show them that we have 100 people giving us giving to us monthly, it really establishes that credibility and shows that we have a strong community behind us. I love that. I love
that. So one thing I like to talk about, on all the podcasts, interviews that I do is how has visibility helped you with core legacy and anything else in life? Let's talk about that a little bit. Yes. And before we talk about the this uncomfortable July you're doing we have to remember to talk about how we met. Oh, yeah. So in 2018, I met Christie for the first time. And I was going to this workshop that she was offering I think it was like $10 to sign up Navy. I think it started at 730 in the
morning on a Saturday. And I remember waking up thinking, I don't know any of these people who are going to be there. I really don't. And it's a Saturday morning, I really do not want to go it was very uncomfortable for me. Um, and that's that weekend was the first weekend I had experienced one of your workshops. You were there, Nelly. It was a sales and social media huddle, really using social media for your business.
And I, I would say without anything I've learned and in your teaching in any of your programs, your your free programs and not. Without that core legacy would not be where it's at today. It just helps you get social media helps you get so much more visible in your business. And if you use it the right way, if you use it to share your story, learn about your values, what you believe in your brand. It'll just do wonders. And I've grown so much in the last three
years. from it. I know you liked the show before and after. But yes, um I want to say we've got 100% of our donors from using social media. I love that. Yeah. Well, and it's just such a it's a free way. Let's be honest, right to get information out to get to talk about core legacy and talk about what you're about and what you're doing and how you're supporting. You know, those 18 to 24 year olds. It's great. And that's the best part of it. I love it. That makes me so happy.
And did you struggle getting on video? Oh my gosh, I did. Okay, now. It's funny when we look back, I don't remember at what point it clicked to where it wasn't scary anymore. I mean, it's still a little scary. But it doesn't hold me back from getting on video anymore. Um, but I love getting on video now. It's such an asset especially for tick tock. People want to see your face. They want to hear you it builds the like know and
trust. People donate who I don't even know and I and I attribute it to them seeing my face and talking about the organization. Somebody's always watching whether they comment or give us instant gratification or not. They're always watching so you never know They are we got a lot of lurkers, we totally do all of us all of us do. So we create content for lurkers and likers. Both. So you want me to talk about July? What do you want me to
talk about? What you're doing will challenge and I've noticed lately, um, one of my goals, I'm really good at networking online, probably because COVID helps us with that. But now the world's opening back up, and I'm realizing I need to expand my network and Columbus and I have been passing up opportunities to go to these networking events. And because I don't know anybody in the room. And if I would not have went to that event, where I met you at in 2019, I will not
be where I am today. So without getting uncomfortable. Who knows where I'd be? I have no idea. So even even taking that step in 2019 Still today, I still find it scary. It is scary. I mean, even for me, I think it's my introverted. I'm just like it when I walk into a room. I will like be like, fine, no, no one, I'll find somebody to go to, and like gravitate to and be like, Hi, I want to be my friend. I mean, that's not exactly what I say. But it's kinda like that, right?
Like, I need to feel safe. Like you need to be near somebody. And so I'm not I don't walk in unless I'm the speaker. Right? And just, like, it's a totally different vibe, if I'm the speaker, or I'm just an attendee totally different. Like when I go to FHL, and there's so many people there, it's like, overwhelming number one, but it's like, oh, my gosh, like, I'm going to be my little introverted self. And even though you've been there
multiple times, yes. Yes. I mean, there are 5000 people, a lot of people, but like, I think to, like in a smaller group, like a networking group, it can be very intimidating, because, yeah, probably not true. But it's like, is everybody looking at me? Are they looking at but you already have proof that getting uncomfortable and doing it once? Right? paid off? works? Yeah. Totally paid off. The the network that you've got to me and got to be a part of and created because of that has been huge.
It has I mean, we have, I should have checked before we got on, on this interview. How many mutual friends we have. Sure, that's a lot. Yeah. But but that's from getting out putting yourself out there. Yeah, building relationships. Yeah. So that's why I think it's so important. Um, which is why July is changing lives just because it's important to get uncomfortable. It's important for that growth is important, because we never know what can happen. But this is what I like
to say this morning. I took a cold shower. It was my uncomfortable thing for today. And do I get anything out of it immediately? Actually, yes, I do. I don't know what the ROI is. Overall, but it's that like, I've just bungee jumped feeling great. Like, oh my god, I did it. Like I did it. Like, you know, that is the instant gratification. I did it. I just like I am a hot super hot bath girl. I don't even like showers. But I took an ice cold one this
morning. And it was like you think like it's really hot outside in Columbus today. But you think it's like it feels good? No, it does not when your skin is burning hot. And this cold ice water like Kitts it, it took my breath away. It was really hard to breathe. I did it and it was like I was like, dang, like, my skin looks
better. Like it looks. It was like that was kind of my instant gratification today, but also its growth in it scientifically does all this stuff to your brain that I don't even remember. But like it's really good to get uncomfortable. Obviously taking cold showers just like anybody could do that. I think most people I think Tony Robbins still jumps in a bath. Yeah, it's an ice bath. It's like literally this like little square in his yard. And
he just jumps down in it. And it's like filled with ice water. Like every day. So it has all these benefits to it. But it's very uncomfortable. I'm sure you've never get used to it. I can't imagine getting used to that. No, like, the more that we do things like that, the more that we grow, and the more you know, I'm just looking at erielle Like, the more that she gets uncomfortable, the more she's gonna grow a core legacy.
We're never going to outgrow the thing that we're trying to help like our businesses, a nonprofit, we're never going to outgrow that. Right. So so we get to we get to grow ourselves so that we can grow the thing. That's our passion. Yeah, our businesses can't outgrow our mindset. Yes, it's gonna work on that. Yes. So So what is this 31 days of uncomfortable and I know you're fundraising for an organization in July. Yes, post about that. So I am I love how this interview switched by the way.
It really is, in the month of July we are last year we raised our goal was 5000 for NC 4k, and this year, and we ended up right at six. And this year our goal is $10,000 for a pediatric cancer nonprofit here in Ohio. So I'm really passionate about it. Number one, because my, my business bestie is the founder. But number two, when I was starting out my business, they were one of my biggest clients for the longest time. And to be able to I don't even know how to say
this the right way. But the way that they supported me, right, I supported them, but I got paid from them, right, I was training hourly, then them being able to support me, it feels good for me. And the situation I'm in now to be able to give back to be able to do this. I'm actually in the month of July, I'm going to be the NC Fourcade visibility queen, I am going to wear swag for NC 4k, the entire month of July. And I'm on a 100 day uncomfortable journey. So mine started already and it will go
past July. But I'm encouraging my goal this year is to get 300 people to do this with us. Last year, we had 150. So why not double it to get 150 people to get uncomfortable with us and do this uncomfortable journey. And it's I'm not charging anything. But I am asking everybody that joins to make a donation to NC 4k. And if they don't if they have another nonprofit that they want to donate to, that's fine. They just have to show me that
they did. And then if they miss a day, then to get back in they get kicked out. So it's a little like, we're like we're doing this the right way, right? It's kind of hard. But to get back in, you just have to make another donation and I am calling it an
uncomfortable donation. $5 may be uncomfortable for some people, you know, $150 may be uncomfortable for some people, but I'm asking them to do something that's uncomfortable and think outside of ourselves because the uncomfortable journey is all about our growth. And then we can help the nonprofits in the process by donating a monetary amount that is uncomfortable for us as well.
I am very excited for that. I am to add to and I think too, I really want to stress, like one of my money mindset things that I've been working on is happy money comes back to us 10 times if you can happily give to a nonprofit and organization that absolutely needs it that has no government funding that has no support from big huge corporations. When we can give especially to those types of what did you call it a homegrown nonprofit, grassroots grassroots sorry, grassroots nonprofit.
It's, it's, it's helping somebody close to us, right? Like, this organization is in Columbus, Ohio, obviously. But it's helping like, it's kind of like that, what is it that? seven degrees. But now like with social media, we're always dead person is two degrees away from you to friends away from you because of social media now. So you know that person you just may not know, you know, that person that's getting support?
Exactly. Exactly. It is. I mean, every day, you can see how easy it is to get into that situation, especially like with the electric calling out the last few days. Yeah, it's scary. It puts things into perspective, how easy your whole world can be turned upside down. True, true. And and most of us, thankfully, you know, yes, it's been super hot, and it was super uncomfortable. Not that you asked to be that uncomfortable, but it was super uncomfortable. But it's just like, you're not
gonna you're not gonna die. But there are people that have situations that live like this all the time. Yeah. Oh, well, I thought I'm like, you know, when I was growing up, and the public schools I attended, we did not have we did not have air conditioning. I didn't either. And there's still kids that don't have air conditioning at home or in their schools. I did not want to work. I mean, I couldn't because I didn't have Wi Fi. But like, I was so
uncovered. I didn't even want to read like with my my books that I had. I was just so uncomfortable. I don't want to do anything. Right. Well, and it's kind of like the other thing about July you know, I say we're getting uncomfortable on purpose, but these families that are going through through the people that are a part of core legacy that people you know, the families that are going through pediatric cancer, like They're not asking for this. They're not asking to be
uncomfortable. They're put in this situation. And so we are here to support them and get uncomfortable for them. I love the way you put that. It's the least we can do. Yeah, it is. So is there anything else you want to leave my audience with before we say goodbye? No. But I hope and sign up for your July challenge, because I'm signing up. And I'm excited to see who's all going to be in there. We got it. We got two weeks. Yes, we have two weeks.
So in the shownotes, you will have a link to become a monthly donor for core legacy. There will also be a link of for changing lives in July. So you can sign up for that and make sure you connect with Ariel Ariel, where can they find you out on social media? Facebook is always the way to go. Okay, and what's your name on Facebook? Ariel Dotson, yeah, I just wanted to make sure that thank you so much for coming on and chatting with my audience today. I appreciate you
so much. And make sure that you give if you if you're not giving to core legacy if you're not, you know, joining the chain, changing lives in July, give this something that's that's on your heart give to something that's passionate to you like you can give like, like Ariel said $1 $5 Like anything you can give like, even if we have to skip Starbucks one day a week, right? Like it's not going to kill us. But it can make such a big difference in the lives of someone else. It really can run
well. Thank you, Chrissy. I hope you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it on your favorite platform and tag me I love re sharing these and giving you a shout out as well. My goal is to always support you and help you see a transformation. Not only your business, but in your life. We will never outgrow our business. Remember that so we get to work on ourselves and see that transformation come through on both personal and
business side. I would love to work with you and 2023 I have loads of opportunities that will fit the pricing and the budget that you have. Let's chat. I'm truly interested in creating an unforgettable experience for you to grow, transform and see how big your business can grow in 2023